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Land transfer OK’d in effort to attract electric-car plant
By Sean Barron
EAST LIVERPOOL
East Liverpool’s Community Improvement Corp. Board of Trustees has signed a letter of intent that is a major first step toward allowing a Baltimore-based electric-car-design business to produce small battery-operated cars in the area.
During its meeting Tuesday at city hall on East Sixth Street, the board agreed to transfer roughly 80 acres just outside the city to Velfera Auto Design Inc.
The move likely will set the stage for a $60 million, 260,000-square-foot assembly plant and will create about 180 jobs initially, and perhaps as many as 300 when the business grows, noted Antonio Pierce, Velfera’s president.
“I feel we can find the quality of employees that we need,” Pierce said.
The property is the site of the former Riverview Florist Co. and was annexed to the city about six years ago, noted William L. Cowan, CIC’s executive director.
In addition, certain buildings on the parcel would be refurbished as an office complex for assembling automobile parts, Cowan explained, adding that the move will be a boon to the region.
The 4-year-old Velfera Auto Design, which also has offices in Detroit and Lewisville, Texas, is an automotive-design firm that is focused on the emerging battery-electric and hybrid-vehicle designs, combined with state-of-the-art lightweight composite chassis and structures and advanced powertrains, according to its website.
Pierce, who owned an electronics firm, noted that such vehicles will have batteries to allow them to travel 300 to 320 miles before recharging. Work on technology to expand that distance is underway, he said.
In addition to creating local jobs in the industry, the move to East Liverpool will be good for the firm partly because it will provide greater access to major East Coast markets, he said. Pierce added that the reception he’s received from Mahoning Valley business leaders and government entities, along with the region’s low cost of conducting business, were selling points for locating here.
Also, Velfera is in negotiations for three additional sites – one each in Mahoning and Trumbull counties and Mercer County, Pa. Such a decentralized business plan would create one facility each to build body panels, house materials and have a large-vehicle assembly plant, Pierce noted.
That would create hundreds of more jobs, Pierce has said, though he declined to be more specific.
Financing from outside sources and various real-estate transactions need to take place before the final decision on locating the plants is made, he said.